Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay is one of those recently republished British Library Crime Classics, the book was first published in 1934.
I had never heard of the author before but the blurb on the back has a wonderful endorsement by Dorothy L. Sayers who happens to be my favourite crime writer so I thought it would be a good read.
Sayers wrote in the Sunday Times, 1934:
‘This detective novel is much more than interesting. The numerous characters are well differentiated, and include one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail.’
Sadly I can’t really say that I agree. For me this was just an okayish read and I felt it really did drag on.
Miss Pongleton is an elderly lady who owns the Frampton Hotel which is the sort of place which has a company of permanent residents. When Pongle, as she is known to them ends up murdered on a London Underground railway staircase, it seems obvious who the culprit is and the police make an early arrest. But of course it doesn’t end there. I almost said ‘more’s the pity’ but it wasn’t that bad, just not as good as I had hoped.
I can think of classic crime writers who would have been more deserving of being reprinted, and probably you can too.
I had never met such a daffy “hero” – I found it entertaining to watch him sink deeper and deeper in his own lies, until I realized he was meant to be the hero, and was actually going to end up with the girl. I wanted to tell her to run for the hills.
Lisa,
I felt exactly the same. I wonder what the author’s husband was like, I hope he didn’t resemble her ‘hero’. At least Sayers wrote herself the perfect man in Lord Peter, mind you her actual husband was a dead loss!